Martin Johnson
American, b. 1951He She He She He She, 1991Mixed media on wood40.6 x 45.7 cm (16 x 18 inches)The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States, a joint initiative of the Trustees of the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection and the National Gallery of Art, with generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute for Museum and Library Services 2009.59.11

Martin Johnson

He She He She He She

Martin Johnson
American, b. 1951He She He She He She, 1991Mixed media on wood40.6 x 45.7 cm (16 x 18 inches)The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States, a joint initiative of the Trustees of the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection and the National Gallery of Art, with generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute for Museum and Library Services 2009.59.11

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Martin Johnson created hundreds of small mixed-media “bricolage” reliefs that were installed floor-to-ceiling in densely packed salon-style exhibitions. His compositions incorporated found objects and cultural ephemera—including cake-topper figurines, taco shop bumper stickers, and other people’s discarded artworks—often including pun-like juxtapositions of words and image. In this work, four plastic bride-and-groom ornaments are placed around the corners of an interior square frame containing a restaurant souvenir sticker slightly altered to read: “So of the Order.”